|
Kenya Opposition Calls for More
Rallies
By KATHARINE HOURELD – 19.Jan 2008
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) - Kenya's opposition, bloodied by protests
that killed more than 20 people, called Saturday for more rallies
as well as economic boycotts and strikes, hoping to paralyze the
government it claims stole the presidential election.
"We will use each and every means to bring down Kibaki's
government," said the opposition party chairman, Henry Kosgey. He
called for "peaceful rallies" across the country on Thursday. Each
such call, in defiance of a government ban, has been met with
forceful police action.
Opposition spokesman Salim Lone said Odinga would call for a "boycott
of companies owned by hard-liners who are around Mr. Kibaki,"
including one of Kenya's biggest banks, a prominent bus company
and a major dairy producer. Lone also said the oppoisition would
work with unions "to organize strikes in selected industries."
Violence continued Saturday when five more people died in ethnic
clashes. Kalenjin, Kisii and Kikuyu fought each other with bows
and arrows and machetes in villages around a Catholic monastery
northwest of Nairobi. Police said they were guarding the monastery,
where hundreds of people have sought refuge.
Nearly 200 houses were set ablaze in what appeared to be an old
argument about land.
U.S. Ambassador Michael Ranneberger, citing "many factors and
underlying grievances," compared Kenya's violence to the 1968 race
riots in the United States.
At a town hall meeting Friday for Americans in Nairobi,
Ranneberger said there was "a lot of cheating on both sides" in
the Dec. 27 elections that pitted President Mwai Kibaki against
opposition leader Raila Odinga.
The U.S. maintains there were allegations of improprieties on both
sides which were not properly investigated, and Ranneberger said
either Odinga or Kibaki could have won by 120,000 votes because it
was a close election and both sides are alleged to have rigged.
But David Throup, an associate of the Washington D.C.-based Center
for Strategic and International Studies, said in a public
conference call with Ranneberger, that Odinga won by 120,000 votes.
Kibaki's power becomes more entrenched each day. The opposition's
best hope may rest in a power-sharing agreement that might make
Odinga prime minister or vice president.
International mediation continued and a group of former African
presidents met with both Odinga and Kibaki, Odinga told reporters
after the meeting Friday.
Former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is expected Tuesday to
lead mediation efforts, his office in Geneva said.
The European Union's Development and Humanitarian Aid Commissioner,
Louis Michel, arrived in Nairobi on Saturday and met with Deputy
President Kalonzo Musyoka.
Kalonzo said that "We are trying to come out with a healing
process and a process which also ensures we engage each other as
Kenyans in dialogue." He said Kibaki was determined to spearhead
the dialogue.
But Kibaki has said he wants direct talks with Odinga, not
mediation.
Legislators at the European Parliament this week urged aid cuts to
help force Kibaki to negotiate.
More than 600 people have been killed in Kenya's election violence,
according to a government commission, the worst turmoil since a
failed 1982 coup attempt in which Odinga participated.
Also Saturday, two Germans and a Dutch national arrested on
suspicion of "terrorist activities" in Kenya were released, the
wife of one of them told The Associated Press.
Andrej Hermlin-Leder, a Berlin-based jazz musician, was released a
day after Kenyan authorities confirmed his arrest, his Kenyan wife,
Joyce Hermlin-Leder, told the AP in Berlin.
A second German, photographer Gerd-Uwe Hauth, and Dutch
documentary filmmaker Fleur van Dissel were also free again, she
said. The Dutch Foreign Ministry also confirmed that van Dissel
was released without charge.
Associated Press writers Tom Maliti, Malkhadir M. Muhumed, Tom
Odula and Michelle Faul contributed to this report.
|
